Muscatine Organic Recycling Center

The Muscatine Organic Recycling Center (MORC) is one of just three municipally owned facilities in the U.S. with the ability to separate food waste from its packaging. It provides the City of Muscatine, Iowa (pop. 25,000) with the unusual ability to process packaged foods that would otherwise be landfilled. Constructed from an idle recycling center, the unique facility has put Muscatine on the map as a regional hub for organics recycling.

MORC functions by stripping the packaging from the organic waste and collecting it for recycling or disposal. The captured organic waste is blended, then fed via metered injection into the same anaerobic digesters that operate to clean the city’s municipal wastewater by converting organic solids into biogas. The facility processes 30-40 tons five days a week. Plans are underway to expand the digester capacity, which is currently the limiting factor. It is funded by tipping fees and is expected to pay for itself by 2030 with the sale of the biogas. The city’s long-term vision is to produce renewable electricity situated in a microgrid to supply heat and power while attenuating supply and demand fluctuations.